News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

The Green Revolution that took place in the late 20th century helped to increase crop yields and thus helped to feed a growing global population. In accordance to a recent report that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the later has also assisted in keeping the emission of greenhouse gas at bay. According to the researchers’ estimate, since 1961 greater yields per acre have prevented the release of approximately 600 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The co-author of the study, Steven Davis form the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, this amounts to nearly twenty years of burning fossil fuel at present rates. He advances that their results dismiss the idea that industrial agricultural with its petrochemicals are intrinsically worse for the atmosphere than a way of doing things that is more ‘old-fashioned’.

Agriculture is no doubt a major source of greenhouse gases. While high-yield crop varieties that were developed during the Green Revolution produced a large quantity of food, they on the other hand also raised agriculture’s dependency on fertilizers, pesticides and mechanization. The research team, which was also comprised of the main author David Lowell and Jennifer Burney, from the Stanford University, examined the overall effect of Green Revolution crops on the emission of greenhouse gases during the time period of 1961 and 2005.

The research team discovered that even though the variety of inputs to modern farms need more energy and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of food output compared to the lower-input approaches of the past, crop yields have risen by 135 percent, thus bringing a reduction in the amount of cropland required to produce the equal amount of food. With the absence of these advances, converting vast natural areas to agriculture would have triggered a much greater amount of greenhouse gas emissions – the same of around 600 billion tons of carbon dioxide since 1961.

Davis is of view that the conversion of a forest or some scrubland into an agricultural area produces a great deal of natural carbon in that ecosystem that needs to be oxidised and lost to the atmosphere. Their study has demonstrated that these indirect effects from the conversion of land into agriculture outweigh the direct emissions that are produced by the modern and intensive style of agriculture.

The advantages of investing in agricultural research as a strategy for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions were also calculated by the team of researchers. Based on their estimates, since 1961, agricultural research has been able to avert the emission of carbon dioxide at a rate of around $4 per ton of carbon dioxide. The prospective for reducing emissions compares positively with other strategies. Furthermore, agricultural advances have avoided the emission of nearly 13 billion tons of greenhouse gas per year, much more than the 1.8 billion tons that were estimated to be attained through the enhancements in the supply of energy or the anticipated 1.7 billion from enhanced transportation systems.

Davis explains that agricultural research is among the cheapest methods of avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. He advances that if the previous few decades are considered as a guide, it is also a huge source of probable reduction.

Source: Escience News